For a company to effectively sabotage users abilities to run software they own/have paid for is a violation of statutory rights. Users therefore have the lawfully protected right to modify their software to function as they need regardless of the wishes of copyright owner. Such is specifically not piracy.
I don't know the specifics of what you're talking about, so I won't comment on that. But assuming that is 100% true... there would still be some difficulties in making meaningful use of that, unfortunately. Very limited scope, basically leaving users to crack their own games with time and know-how they may not have. Also goes back to reducing value. If those are the hoops you pay to jump through, that's still a huge problem. I personally would rather not support it at all than begrudgingly crack my own games. I don't feel better about it knowing it's somewhat allowed. It's not enough, you know?
For instance... this may protect legitimate users from legal recourse born of using cracked exes/dlls and whatnot, but not so much the people who provide the cracked files to those users. It's not like pirate uploaders care if the downloader owns the game or not. They still don't have the rights to openly distribute those files, right? So they can still be pursued and shut down. And if they can still go after them, the net outcome doesn't change for the end user, save for the few who are able to make and retain their own cracks for themselves, I guess. DRM makers and game distributors can still use the former as the reason for having these locks in place (and then abuse them without a care in the world.)
If they're going to continue implementing wonky DRMs and shutting out paying customers, there will always be a demand for people to break the protection and openly distribute the files to paying and non-paying users alike. Even if they were verifying ownership it still wouldn't be kosher. Legitimate customers then seek these files out, keeping the whole thing going and potentially spreading all sorts of malware. The whole thing is still broken, regardless of whether legitimate users are legally entitled to bypass DRM.
In a sense, they prop up the very situation they claim to be circumventing with these measures. We all know the pirates will never capitulate. It's like a sport for them. So what's left of DRM, then? That's where the issue stems from with me, more than anything. It doesn't work and in fact feeds the pirate ecosystems built around cracking them, while also removing value from the product for paying customers. It's a net loss. Doesn't matter if people have the right to crack the software they've paid up on for their personal usage.
